Chapter 203

Dinner was surprisingly nice. He met with some very interesting young children and had the pleasure of meeting the infamous Sister Cathy.

Unexpectedly, Sister Cathy wasn’t some scary old nun. No, shockingly, Sister Cathy was a gorgeous young woman in her early twenties. 

But he quickly saw why the children feared her. She gave commands like a drill sergeant and her voice was like a thorny whip. Not even the cutest girl was safe from her tongue lashings. It was equal tyranny.

As Elder Han was walking him around the complex, Julius passed over the money he took from the guards. 

“Oh, changed your mind again, have we?”

“That’s a lot of children. I don’t think it’s going to get you very far,” Julius said.

“Every copper matters. Who knows? Maybe I will end up treating the kids to some sweets,” the old man commented with a chuckle.

“I’m sure Sister Cathy wouldn’t appreciate that.”

“Oh ho, you would be surprised. As long as I get her a couple of things it will be alright,” Elder stated confidently.

“Whatever you say,” Julius said with a shake of his head, already preparing for Elder Han’s funeral.

Julius didn’t know where Elder Han was taking him. But they were heading toward the back of the orphanage. The old man had said he wanted to show him something, but he couldn’t help but wonder what was back here.

It didn’t take very long to find out. 

He heard the familiar sound before he saw it. There were a few children who were out back already training some of the skills. It was mainly boys, but there were a couple of girls who were also participating.

“What is this?” He asked the old man.

“One of the best ways to support oneself and their family in a rural place like Stonewall is to learn how to hunt monsters. We try our best to teach the children who are interested.”

“I thought you said many of the children end up going to sects or other established powers,” he commented as he observed the group of children.

“Not everyone is considered to be talented enough to be recruited. Those who don’t have an exceptional affinity often have to prove themselves before any power accepts them within their ranks. A lot of the time, the unchosen end up as adventurers. Before that, they have to learn skills somehow right?”

“And you’re the one who teaches them?”

The old man laughed softly. “Not really, after all, I am just a simple old man. What kind of child would listen to my advice?”

“I would,” he easily replied.

The old failed to hide the grin as he heard Julius’s comment. 

“So what am I doing here? I suspect you have a reason for this. I doubt you brought me out here to show me your talented students,” Julius stated.

“That’s exactly what I was doing. But you’re right. That’s not the only reason,” Elder Han told him with a pat on the shoulder.

“Can you just come out and say it?” Julius asked exasperatedly.

The old man chuckled at his behavior. “I want you to help them.”

“You really think I can offer more than you could?”

The old man didn’t even try to hide his amusement. “Of course not, you’re not exactly an experienced teacher even I can tell that much. But you do have something that I don’t.”

Julius had to rein in his urge to argue with the old man, instead he played along. “And what’s that?”

“Youth.”

“Youth?” He asked skeptically.

“Yep. Like I said earlier, these children only think of me as a simple old man. They don’t really have faith in what I tell them.”

“I bet that would change if you just showed them a fraction of your power,” Julius said with a deadpan expression.

“Perhaps. But I am not looking to do that. It would defeat the whole purpose after all,” the old man replied with a shrug.

Julius gave the old man a blank stare. “And why would I do it?”

“Because you have a good heart,” the old man chuckled.

“No, I don’t”

“Yes, you do. Otherwise, you would have just kept that money. Rather than do that, you decided to give it to some normal orphanage.”

Normal orphanage my ass.

Julius shook his head. “I am not exactly a teacher like you so helpfully pointed out,” he made another excuse.

“I don’t need you to give them a formal education. I just want you to beat them up a little bit,” the old man said like it was a completely normal thing to say.

“Beat them up?”

“Just a little.”

He didn’t have a reply to that. Instead, he looked over at the children who were training. At first glance, it was obvious to see the effort they were putting in. Every one of them was putting their heart into it.

It was kind of inspiring. Just from an initial glance at their auras, they weren’t anything special at least compared to some of the students at Goldencrest. Still, their dedication touched him.

He suspected that was what Elder Han was hoping for.

“I am starting to see that you are quite the meddlesome old man,” Julius told the old man as he walked toward the group of children.

***

Sarah POV

Sarah sent another mana bolt toward her target. She had been trying very hard to improve the power of her attacks but was having a hard time. She hadn’t increased the level of [Mana Bolt] in quite some time.

What am I doing wrong?

The others weren’t having quite the same problems as her. All of them were improving quite well. Even Scott, no matter how annoying he could be, had improved a lot in these past few months.

It was hard not to know, considering that the boy had been bragging to everyone about it. He kept on saying that the next time the Razor Wind Sect came along they would be begging for him to join.

She didn’t want to admit it, but there was a good chance he wasn’t just blowing empty air. The boy was most likely the strongest out of them. If anyone had a chance, it would be him.

However, joining a sect wasn’t a part of Sarah’s goals. She was planning to join the Adventurer’s Guild once she was old enough. Her parents had been adventurers and she was planning to follow in their footsteps. 

Not at this rate though.

She had a high water affinity, but everyone knew that water mages were weaker than other mages such as fire mages at lower tiers. That was the reason why she had chosen to get the [Mana Bolt] skill. It would allow her to hit a little bit harder than some of her water skills did.

So far, it had been slow progress and she couldn’t help but doubt her initial plan. However, she was determined to show everyone that she could do it.

So she sent another [Mana Bolt] at the target, trying her best to channel as much mana into it.

As she did that, she couldn’t help but notice Elder Han approaching from the distance. Alongside, the old caretaker was a boy around their age.

I think I remember seeing him at dinner earlier. Another orphan maybe? He is going to join us in training?

“Everyone, come and gather around!” Elder Han called out to them all. All of the kids stopped what they were doing and came on over.

Although Elder Han was usually a gentle grandpa to them, he could be surprisingly commanding when he wanted to. It wasn’t like Sister Cathy either, Elder Han was loved by everyone, regardless of their age. He was the one they ran to when they were trying to hide from Sister Cathy.

“Who’s the new kid?” Scott brashly asked.

“This is Julius. He’s not an orphan but I asked him here to give you guys some help,” Elder Han explained with his typical smile, like there was something they didn’t know.

Sarah had been around since she was six years old, so she knew what that smile meant. The others would have too if they cared to pay attention.

Scott obviously didn’t notice or care. “What?! How’s a kid our age going to teach us anything?” The boy exclaimed.

Finn, the more polite of the two also spoke up. “I agree, no offense Elder Han, but why bring us a boy who can’t be older than us to teach us things?”

Elder Han gave them that same smile. “Because you guys have been getting cocky lately.”

“No, we haven’t! We have just been getting stronger, so it’s natural that our attitudes will change with it!” Scott argued.

“Oh ho? You think so?” 

“Definitely! I have been working hard, there is no way some pampered brat is going to beat me,” Scott boldly declared.

“That sounds like a challenge,” Elder Han commented. It sounded like he was expecting something like this. Sarah had a weird feeling in her gut.

“Damn right, it is!”

“How does that sound Julius? Would you be willing to fight him?” The old man asked the boy next to him.

Sarah took the time to finally get a good look at the newcomer. He was decently tall for his age, and he was wearing some baggy clothing so it was hard to tell if he was muscular or thin, but his eyes were what drew her in.

There was a weird sparkle in them that distracted her. 

Probably just the light playing tricks, she told herself.

The boy ran his hand through his black hair, showing his somewhat attractive features. He wasn't overly handsome like Scott, but he had his own sort of charm.

“Why do I think you were expecting this, old man?” The boy asked, his voice deeper than she had been expecting.

“You can never predict the youth these days,” Elder Han said with a smirk.

“Well, are we going to fight or not?” Scott asked sharply. Finn, who was next to Scott, gave the other boy a hard elbow as if telling him to be nicer.

The black-haired boy gave a calm look at Scott. “Sure, I don’t have any problems with that.”

She watched as Julius and Scott both walked toward the empty area where they often had mock fights. 

Scott picked up a wooden sword that was lying on a rack and tossed one to Julius.

“Here, we fight until the first crippling blow, alright?”

“That’s good by me,” the new boy stated evenly.

Scott didn’t wait for much longer and went onto the offensive right away. Sarah observed Scott’s patent fire augmentation skill activate and his speed increased dramatically.

Ah, he’s going all out from the start, she thought to herself with a frown.

However, she was surprised to witness the new boy take this all in with a passive face. He calmly and easily deflected all of Scott’s swings with a quick flick of his wrist. His feet barely moved from their place, using just a single hand to parry.

A quick pivot or a sudden backstep was all he needed in order to defend himself from Scott’s attacks.

She noticed Scott grow increasingly frustrated as none of his usual attacks worked on this new boy. His annoyance started to show through his fighting.

It was one of his biggest weaknesses, in Sarah’s humble opinion. They had all repeatedly told him that, but the rash boy didn’t care. He just used his frustration to power his blows, making them faster and stronger, but also more predictable.

Julius seemed to come to this understanding as well. As he casually fended off Scott’s offensive surge, he spoke to the other boy. “Anger has its uses. But blind rage won’t get you anywhere,” he gently rebuked the other boy.

Scott replied, in the only way she knew he would, he attacked harder.

Sarah saw the new boy just sigh. Rather than keep on defending, she watched as the boy dropped his sword without a care in the world into the dirt.

As Scott sent a furious overhanded strike, Julius stepped calmly to one side, the wooden blade passing down his body. He stepped into Scott’s guard and sent a single punch into the other boy’s stomach.

A grimace of pain flashed through Scott’s face, but credit to him, he didn’t allow it to affect him that much. He brought his wooden sword back around and backhanded a slash at the now weaponless boy.

This didn’t seem to matter to Julius. He used one hand to clamp down on the forearm of Scott, gave it a sharp twist, and forced the other boy to let go of his weapon.

The now weaponless Scott backed up and had a furious expression on his face. He was holding his arm in pain but kept looking at the sword that was on the ground with desperate eyes.

Scott launched himself toward Julius with a tackle, which the other boy avoided with ease, but Sarah was shocked to see that Scott hadn’t been planning to take down the other boy in the first place. He had been trying to retrieve his sword.

Unfortunately for Scott, unlike Sarah, Julius had not been fooled. The new boy stretched out his foot and poked the sword just out of Scott’s reach. As Scott tried to lunge further for his sword, Julius stomped down on his ankle, preventing him from doing so.

No matter how he struggled, Scott wasn’t able to remove the leg from his ankle.

With a sigh of exasperation, the new boy released his hold and walked away with his hands in his pockets, clearly demonstrating that the fight was over.

Scott unfortunately, didn’t seem to understand that the fight was already well beyond lost. Whether it was his anger or stupidity that kept him going, she didn’t know. However, once Scott struggled in the dirt and got a hold of his sword, he lept back to both feet. He then ran at the boy who had his back turned to Scott.

Sarah was about to cry out a warning, but she was too late. Scott swung a powerful blow at the unprotected head of the other boy. Even though it was a wooden sword, it was wood that was much stronger than normal wood. If it connected, it could do some real damage.

However, somehow Julius seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, because he tilted his head down at the perfect moment, turned around, and sent a front kick at Scott’s chest. 

This wasn’t like any other of his attacks. This one had some power behind it. She heard a loud thump and the sound of all of the air gushed out of the boy’s chest before Scott was sent flying head over foot into a rack of wooden weapons.

Julius just walked over to where Scott remained lying down, hands still in his pockets, and stared at the boy with a disappointed glare. 

However, for some reason, Sarah suddenly found it difficult to breathe. It was like the time when they had faced a Tier 2 monster for their very first hunt. For some reason, she was nervous about what the new boy was going to do.